As usual, I’m trying to introduce this agenda with something that make sense to me and to give an overview on what’s going on in the World around us. It’s one thing to go and party every week-end, it’s an enjoyable thing to do but it’s even better when you do it to forget about the stupidity of the World.
So what was on the news lately? Something about the Cindy Crawford and the fact that everybody praised how gracefully she is aging, when some (apparently false) pictures of her break the news. And someting about Madonna and how disgracefully she is aging, trying to convince the World that she is still sexy and beautiful. Both situation show us what women should be and do: first an object of sexual desire, then have kids, age and not show her face to the World: it’s discusting apparently (but beautiful if she’s not ashamed. If you’re a woman and didn’t know that you have a expiry date, here you go: you have to face it now. So go ahead if you’re 25 years old (of way much younger) and show your tits and your butt, you only have a very short period to do so, despite the fact that you’ll probably be really beautiful over 40 if you follow a good healthy routine of a balanced diet and sport…

But who cares?

Anyway, smile woman: the 8th of March is coming and with it the great marketing ideas with a lot of pink and paternalistic message about how powerful we are now and how we can allow ourselves to drink beers… (forgetting that beer was invented and prepared by women originally).

Yeah… I can’t wait to spend some more time in the cultural life away from that bullshit….

If you want to see a movie, as usual, you can go to any cinema, but what about discovering weird or cult movies in a festival dedicated to the Genre ? It is called Offscreen and is held in the best venues like Nova, Ciné Rits (in the cinema school), or Bozar and Cinematek. The program is full of movies that I have never heard of, so I guess you’ll have to pick one for yourself. My choice goes to “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night”, by Ana Lily Armipour. The movie has everything to please me : a female vampire is frightening people wearing a chador in the streets of an iranian town. Yes, it’s a iranian-feminist-horror movie, and you can watch it at Nova on the 22nd of March.

The project space w-o-l-k-e just moved out from their nice space in the top floors of a building and now they are based in Rue Ravenstein 23, which is the exact address of Bozar. So I don’t know what is the deal between the two institutions, but I note that they go on with their program, like their weekly cine-club. This week the subject is ”I Was a Teenage Rebel! Girl power in the 80s”. One of the two movies that they’ll be screening is The Legend of Billie Jean :

A great moment of cinema awaits you at Bozar in the beautifull Henri Le Boeuf room where they will be screening the musical and classical and great movie West Side Story and the music will be played live by the Brussels Philarmonic Orchestra! I’m really curious and excited to see that !

There’s the Lezarts Urbains Festival in March : a lot of concerts, conferences and meetings about urban culture. There’s also one movie to see, on the 11th March called Electro Chaabi : which show us the very dynamic and festive scene of Cairo, far far away from the images that medias give us of the Arab countries, right ?

For the third time, in the occasion of the 8th March is the Festival Game Ovaires in Saint-Gilles in the Maison des cultures. Theatre, perforamnces, short movies, installation : there’s no talks and discussion : only art!
The short movies is a selection made by the team of Elles Tournent, a Feminist Film festival, and it will be held on Sunday at 6.30 : there’s about ten movies, each are of 3 to 6 minutes maximum. During the festival – at anytime – you can discover an installation that shows the history of women rights fight in Belgium (and Europe).

Saturday night is the Museum Night Fever : during one night some museums open their doors to many activities artistic (performances, acrobaties, concerts, DJ sets,…) but also massages or chinese tea tasting. Personnaly I really wish I’ll have the opportunity to go and listen to the sets of Georgio ‘la Colombe’ Valentino & La Société des Mélancholiques at the Army Museum. I’ve seen that DJ Croco is also there with his concept of Photomatic: Dj set with videos and pictures that he devopped for years at Bar du Matin. I also want to go to the Galeries Royales to check the Musée éphémère de l’exil (temporary museum of exile).
Finally there’s the after party and this year is the Mac Swell team who’s organising it, and it’s not a surprise. They did a great job last year at the Natural Science Museum ! No doubt the whole night will be full, so i’m not sure personnaly that I’ll be attending, but if you were wondering if it would be good, I’m sure it will!

As usual, there’s plenty of exhibitions to see, and personnaly I’ll try to add the visits in the middle of my other activities. For example today, on my way to Saint-Luc for my courses, I can make a little detour to check the work of Denis Meyers and his exhbition “Typography”.
I think I’m going to pass the visit of pictures of cafes “Bistro” by Raphaël Carette at Recyclart, but I’ll try to go to Byrrrhamide to check the collective Propaganza and their “Tv Show”.
On Sunday, I believe it’s safe to say that I can go to Le Kabinet for the last day of the Drawing Kabinet and finally a chance to visit the place. I’m quiet optimistic about the fact that after that I can go to Saint-Gilles for the short movies screening at Game Ovaire!
I already know for sure that I won’t make it for the Apero-Expo at Arc, this Thursdaay. But I hope that the shop För will be still open when I’ll get out of Saint-Luc: they are on my way home, so I would be able to check for myself the basement where Escalade, a temporary Record shop will be for the next weeks. If I’m not too tired I would think about going all the way to the center of the city and the bar Epicerie Moderne, where there’s a chance to have a drink and a chat with Electronic Lodge (who’s organising a party the next night at Bazaar).
As it’s also very close to Saint-Luc, I might go and check the new exhibition at the project space : “Dehors Contemporary Art Window” and if I miss it, I don’t really miss as it’s a window that you can see on a 24/7 basis.
I should add to the list a visit to Wiels and check the newest exhibition at the project space Komplot, this week-end, called “Yesterday Was Different”.

Galerie E² organise a concerts night at Barlok this Thursday. The venue (now nomadic) has always showed us a good taste when it comes to illustrations but also to music, as it’s an important part of its program. The program include bands like Drache, Gregaldur, Feromil, Les mains froides et Romano Krang.

Let’s talk about the parties now : there’s a lot of choices again : I can not talk about everything going on in town, of course, I’ll give details about some of them, you can find links to even more here below and I don’t even talk about some other amazing ones !! So I told you already that Electronic Lodge are in town. They are coming from Liège and are throwing their first party in Brussels !

If you like Dub, then you should go to Atelier 210 to party. Or maybe you’re the type who wouldn’t miss the place to be? Then you should probably check the opening party of a new club in town: it is called La Villaine and the venue is known already as it’s the former Mr Wong.
For me, the hardest night will be Saturday: the choice is amazing. So I’ve decided to focus on the ones who are held in the unusual venues: there’s a Moyofree party in the former cookies factory Dandoy. The place is the temporary residence of K.A.K, a theatre collective, and it’s a house warming party with good dj’s like the ones from 54kollactiv!
There’s also the Holger Party with Pender Street Steppers and Hasman Deejay, in an unknown venue of Chaussée de Ninove. The music will be great, no doubt.

In conclusion, I don’t know yet where I’ll be going. I’m really curious about many of those events, sounds, exhibitions and performances, but I also want to spend some time with friends, so it will depend on them. Or maybe I will decide to go somewhere by myself, alone, to loose myself in the dark streets of Brussels in order to meet new people, to discover new stories…. I’ll walk alone in the night, free to go wherever I feel like, but really aware of the fact that this freedom is not share by many women around the World… and still surprise some people to see a girl going out alone, even here…